Prince Mohammed attracted controversy in November when he orchestrated a purge of dozens of people, including sitting cabinet members and a fellow prince. The move was seen as an effort to consolidate power. The regime portrayed the sweep as a crackdown on corruption and an effort to attract foreign investment and reduce the country’s historic dependence on oil.

Sanders declined to say whether Trump would raise human rights issues with the heir to the throne.

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Mar. 11, 2018, 12:40 p.m.

President Trump's well-documented clashes with California owe plenty to politics, culture and personality. But at bottom, what drives the president's toxic relationship with the nation's most populous state is this: his near-obsessive desire to be seen as a winner.

No state represents losing for Trump more than California, whether in business or politics. No surprise, then, that he didn't rush to visit. He arrives on Tuesday later into his term than any president since Franklin D. Roosevelt, back when presidents weren't flying routinely; FDR crossed the continent by train.

Mar. 11, 2018, 4:00 a.m.

They're everywhere in this Michigan city near Detroit, rattling travelers' teeth and popping tires, making for a lunar-like obstacle course. Local television newscasters hand out gift cards for tire repairs amid their reports on banged wheel rims and stranded motorists. "POTHELL!!" blared a recent headline in the Detroit Free Press.

Mar. 12, 2018, 10:00 a.m.

Republicans desperate to hold onto a congressional seat in the heart of Trump country received more bad news Monday, just days after the president parachuted into western Pennsylvania to give their struggling candidate a boost.

Republican Rick Saccone, according to a new Monmouth University poll, is still losing ground in Tuesday’s election to fill a vacant seat in the district near Pittsburgh that Trump won by 20 points. Some $8 million in spending by national Republican groups aimed at propping up the state lawmaker hasn’t seemed to give him the boost he badly needs to take a lead against his political-neophyte opponent, Conor Lamb.

The poll found Lamb leading 51% to 45% if turnout reflects the patterns of other similar special elections held this year, in which there was a Democratic surge. Even if turnout is lackluster, as it tends to be for a routine special election, the poll still shows Lamb winning by two points.

Mar. 11, 2018, 6:55 p.m.

Minutes before President Trump entered the White House Roosevelt Room on Thursday to announce sweeping tariffs on imported metals, the president's economic A-team stood stone-faced near the president's podium — but not Peter Navarro.

The 68-year-old former UC Irvine economics professor looked almost gleeful as he waited for Trump to issue final orders levying 25% duties on foreign steel and 10% on aluminum, all in the name of national security.

At the raucous Pennsylvania rally for Republican House candidate Rick Saccone, Trump derided Waters for calling for his impeachment, imitating her as supposedly declaring, “’We will impeach him. We will impeach the president. But he hasn’t done anything wrong. It doesn’t matter, we will impeach him.’”

Mnuchin, appearing on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” said Trump’s verbal assaults were intended to be humorous.

Mar. 10, 2018, 9:16 a.m.

The Trump administration Saturday took a step toward possibly banning “bump stocks,” proposing new regulations to prohibit ownership of the controversial equipment that allows semiautomatic rifles to fire at automatic speeds.

Under the proposed rule from the the Department of Justice, bump stocks would be classified as machine guns that are currently banned under federal law.

"President Trump is absolutely committed to ensuring the safety and security of every American,” Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions said in a statement.

Mar. 9, 2018, 3:51 p.m.

President Trump reviews a French military parade in Paris in July. (Associated Press)

The Pentagon is proposing to stage a military parade in November with soldiers in historic uniforms and warplanes, but no tanks — a scaled-down version of the grand display President Trump wants, according to two officials familiar with the plan.

Pentagon officials have drafted a memo outlining a plan for a parade in Washington on Veterans Day, the officials said. It was first reported by CNN.

Trump earlier this year asked the Defense Department to plan a parade of the U.S. armed forces to celebrate military strength, much like France’s annual French Bastille Day parade that he and First Lady Melania Trump attended in July in Paris as the guests of French President Emmanuel Macron.